To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub OriginFrom the celebrated 'to be, or not to be' speech in Shakespeare's Hamlet, 1602:HAMLET:To be, or not to be: that is the question:Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to sufferThe slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;No more; and by a sleep to say we endThe heart-ache and the thousand natural shocksThat flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummationDevoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;

In the past few years, sleep has been a battle for me. I LOVE to sleep, yet sleep doesn't seem to LOVE me in return anymore. What a waste of a perfect love affair...dumped again!

When we were small children the dreaded afternoon nap was a daily fight. We fought like the devil not to take that nap. As we grew older, we fought like the devil to get a nap. Thus, begins the vicious cycle of sleep...or not sleeping!

My teenage and young adult years, especially on the weekends and holidays were spent sleeping most of the day and partying most of the night. It seemed that nothing could wake me when I had a good sleep going on. Now if I can sleep until the alarm goes off every morning, I consider that a good night's sleep ... usually four hours or less. I know, not good for me to get less than eight hours a night. Tell that to my body when it chooses to wake me about every two hours as if to say, "You have slept enough for now. Get your lazy butt up and moving!" Believe me, I want sleep to be eight hours or more. The night just isn't long enough and the following day is much too long.

Last night, I finally drifted off about midnight. With it being the weekend, there is no alarm, no pressing time for me to get up and going on Saturday morning. About two o'clock, wide eyed...I managed to drift off again, only to wake up promptly at 3:15 AM. This is exactly thirty minutes before my week day alarm goes off. Well, my body told me it wanted coffee in no uncertain terms, so that is what I did. Made coffee, checked email and my other online addictions. After that, I nodded off again until about 7:30. Catnaps I call them, but I want hours of uninterrupted sleep. For the past two weeks, the unsettled weather has my arthritis on a wicked roll. In constant pain and not able to really take anything, sleep is not going to happen the way I want and need it to occurr. Oh well...Shakespear's words again drift through my sleep deprived (depraved?) brain!

The below original companion poems about sleeping and dreams came to me after that first nap of the day this morning. That is when I decided to use them in my blog post for today. I am hoping to catch a couple more catnaps before the day is over! *********************************************************************************************************************